CONNECTIVITYWEEK: SMARTGRID, GRIDWISE, DEMAND-RESPONSE AND NEW ENERGY

From the heart of Silicon Valley, where the concept of connectedness was nurtured into a new world community, comes ConnectivityWeek, a conference on how to make it all work faster and more efficiently.

The theme: “Empowering the Energy Revolution!”

The ConnectivityWeek brochure explains: “The Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th century, followed by the Information Revolution of the late 20th century is paving the way for a new “Energy Revolution”, a revolution that centers on utilizing IT to fundamentally change how we create, distribute and employ energy…The future of billions of connected smart devices from home appliances to environmental controls to industrial robots lie at the heart of this vision, with intelligent connectivity of these devices as a critical element for success…”

Demand-Response, a major component of the smart grid just emerging into the marketplace, will take its place at this event.

From the DR-Expo brochure: “As the North American electricity grid comes under stress from increasing demand, a focus on curtailing peak load provides an opportunity for building owners and building automation stakeholders to participate in load shedding strategies driven by lucrative incentives offered by electricity suppliers…[E]arly implementations [of Demand Response (DR)]…tended to be simplistic, using event and price signals to simply turn off consuming devices…DR-Expo is the first event totally focused on the implementation of DR in today’s world of environmentally-aware and cost-conscious business and real estate…”

NewEnergyNews will be reporting daily.

An expert on Demand Response from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab explains the basics of the SmartGrid.

ConnectivityWeek
May 20-22, 2008 (Clasma Events, Inc.)

WHO
The GridWise Architecture Council funded by the
U.S. Department of Energy; A smart energy panel; convergence technology panel; a keynote panel

click to enlarge

WHAT
ConnectivityWeek, including GridWise Expo
DR-Expo and much, much more, covering every imaginable way energy is delivered and consumed.

WHEN
May 20 thru 22, 2008

click to enlarge

WHERE
In the heart Silicon Valley at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California

WHY
- ConnectivityWeek Key Topics: (1) connectivity in smart energy efficient, (2) how to retool the design, building, owning and managing of the built environment, (3) implementing effective management of energy supply-demand, (4) the security implications of energy and smart devices, (5) new business models (6) new opportunities with smart connectivity, (7) bringing out new service-oriented business opportunities, and (8) how the U.S. can take a lead role in the Energy Revolution
- BuilConn covers IT in building systems.
- HomeConn covers Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)
- GridWise is about smart grid technology and the billions that will come from it because of the 2007 Energy Act.
- There are also sections on business opportunities(ZigBee Expo), industrial IT (IndConn), Demand Response (DR-Expo) and machine to machine connections (M2M).

click to enlarge

QUOTES
- About ConnectivityWeek: “The future of billions of connected smart devices from home appliances to environmental controls to industrial robots lie at the heart of this vision, with intelligent connectivity of these devices as a critical element for success. ConnectivityWeek focuses on this element.”
- About BuilConn: “The convergence of building systems and IT is bringing with it a plethora of new opportunities for commercial building and facility owners, operators to evolve how they design, build and operate their facilities.”
- About HomeConn: “With the increased deployment of smart meters in North America and around the world, connectivity in homes is now driving a growth in Home Automation applications related to energy management. HomeConn is a new event held as part of ConnectivityWeek, focused on exploring how the deployment of millions of smart meters and smart energy appliances will create a new and vibrant markets for smart home devices from security, heating, air conditioning, lighting and lifestyle / entertainment systems.”